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Sugar Cookie Recipe

What would you choose for dessert; a sugar cookie or a slice of chocolate cake? If you’re anything like me and those two items were in your home, the sugar cookies would be hanging around long after the chocolate cake was polished off.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like sugar cookies, but love them… Not so much. But trying to decorate chocolate cake to give as gifts – that wouldn’t work as well as sugar cookies do. Which leads me to the reason why I’m writing this post today – I’ve come up with a sugar cookie recipe by playing around with some favorite recipes. It’s definitely tasty, although it’s still not in the ‘chocolate cake’ category. If you try it out I’d love to hear what you think in the comment section below.

Before I get to the recipe, let me share a little introduction to the ‘Polar Bear Parade’ cookies with you.

When I saw this ribbon months ago at Michael’s Craft Store I just knew I had to make a cookie version of it. Pretty colors, a simple shape and such a cute little polar bear.

These were finished before Christmas, but I wasn’t able to post them in time. If you’d like to create these, you could make just the polar bear or substitute another object for the gift instead. It’d be a nice winter-themed cookie I think. The ribbon is probably on sale now too!

I used the KopyKake drawing projector to help me draw the image (believe me – I need it!), but you might be able to freehand as it’s a fairly simple shape.

Some of these are made of a new gingerbread recipe I found on-line, but I wasn’t entirely happy with the results (taste).

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been playing around with some of my ‘go-to’ sugar cookie recipes – a few of the main ones being Peggy Porschen’sand the NFSC (No Fail Sugar Cookie) recipe (from cakecentral.com), to come up with my own combination. The latter two are still favourites for me, but now I’ve got a third choice. This is what I’ve come up with (please also see notes at the bottom of the recipe):

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Yield: Makes about 30-35 cookies, but it will also depend on the size of the cookie cutter and how thick you make your cookies.

Ingredients

2 cups unsalted butter (at room temperature)

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 3 tsp vanilla)

5 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder (*take this out if you don't want your cookies to spread)

1 tsp salt

Instructions

Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed. (Use the paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated - for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more.

Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you'd like a light and fluffy cookie, that's ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you'd like the cookie to hold its shape.

Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.

Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won't escape. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it's ready. It's also important at this stage not to over mix the dough (the glutens in the flour develop and the dough can become tough).

Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.

Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.

Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.

Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!

Notes

A few notes about the recipe:

*Butter - The butter needs to be soft, or room temperature. I leave mine out the night before I do my baking. If you forget, you can grate the butter on the largest hole of your box grater, so that the sugar and butter will mix together better.

*Amount of Butter - I’ve noticed some people who've tried the recipe who live in a warmer climate have trouble with 2.5 cups butter, and although the extra 1/2 cup butter taste is nice, to make the dough easier to work with in any climate, I edited the recipe to say only 2 cups of butter.

*Baking powder - I hardly use any baking powder in my recipe because the dough will spread and rise more during baking, thereby making the shape of the cookie less crisp. The only time I use it now, is if I'm just making round shortbread cookies and I don't care about the cookies spreading.

*Chill your dough if it gets too soft work with. It's a softer, sometimes sticky dough (depending on your environment as well), but in my humble opinion, makes up for it in taste.

A few notes about the recipe:

These have already been included in the recipe above, but just in case you didn’t see them, they are important to read, so I’ve included them again.

*Butter – The butter needs to be soft, or room temperature. I leave mine out the night before I do my baking. If you forget, you can grate the butter on the largest hole of your box grater, so that the sugar and butter will mix together better.

*Amount of Butter – I’ve noticed some people who’ve tried the recipe who live in a warmer climate have trouble with 2.5 cups butter, and although the extra 1/2 cup butter taste is nice, to make the dough easier to work with in any climate, I edited the recipe to say only 2 cups of butter. The printable version is uneditable, so still says 2.5 cups of butter.

*Baking powder – I hardly use any baking powder in my recipe because the dough will spread and rise more during baking, thereby making the shape of the cookie less crisp. The only time I use it now, is if I’m just making round shortbread cookies and I don’t care about the cookies spreading.

*Chill your dough if it gets too soft work with. It’s a softer, sometimes sticky dough (depending on your environment as well), but in my humble opinion, makes up for it in taste.

Thank you a million times over Marian! My first ever attempt at making and icing sugar cookies – and I used your recipe and tutorial. Brilliant instructions that created perfectly formed shapes. Everyone thought I had gotten the cookies proffesionally made!
I made mice and foxes for part of a Gruffalo themed birthday for my just turned 4yr old. He was the most excited 4 year old ever

I just attempted to make these cookies and the batter was to dry.
I have read comments and your responses and you talk a lot about humidity – would it be safe to say that maybe adding all 5 cups of flour at once is too much, especially if you don’t know much about humidity or about the water content in the butter being used.

I really enjoy making sugar cookies and decorating them. Would you be willing to share your recipe for icing your cookies? I think you referred to it as “Royal” icing? I would really like to have a recipe to try. Thx so much!!! Going to be hosting an open house soon and these would be wonderful to serve.

I am loving all your tutorials and your blog. Thank you for sharing with us all!! I do have a question about your cookie recipe here and your royal icing recipe. Can both be pre-made and used later and if so for how long. Basically, how many days before hand can I make each and have them bake and ice as good as day one? Thank you so much!

It makes a huge difference which flour you use. Canadian flour has lots more gluten than American flour. Had to adjust all my recipes use less canadian flour and more American flour could be the reason people having trouble. Plus flour has different results in different weather anyone who bakes bread knows you need to account for the humidity in the air. Hope this helps.

Thank you for your recipe share i love all your cookies your my inspiration and I would love to be able to Create cookies like yours one day I ha e a couple of questions if that’s ok? How thin do you roll your dough? Do these cookies have a crisp or soft texture I love crisp cookies but am struggling to find one and finally when you are decorating cookies and you have to leave them out to dry before decorating other sections were do you leave your cookies I find if I leave the cookies out they go soft but if I put them in a container the icing smudges thank you so much Cheryl xxxx

After I bake the cookies, they are very soft, perhaps that’s the way they are supposed to be, but I find that it makes for a rather fragile cookie. Do you have any tips on how to make them less soft or less fragile? I mean they’re delicious, but scares me if I’m trying to transport them; I’m afraid they’re going to break.

Absolutely – Bake them longer and they’ll be crispier and more sturdy. If the room the cookies are sitting in is humid, you may need to put a dehumidifier on… The cookies could be absorbing the moisture in the air.

I’m sorry, my site has been “experiencing difficulties” since Thursday… This is not how it’s supposed to look. The ads are supposed to be in the sidebar and it the whole design was lost and I had to “activate” an old blog theme (long story), so I really hope it will be back to normal in the next few days. I have someone looking into it.

I have changed the format of the recipe so that the print button is on the right, hopefully that helps!

Hi! I love this recipe and have used it in the past with great success. I am about to make these for my son’s football team (shaped like helmets) and was curious if you have ever used food coloring in them to change the color? I was hoping to make them black for the helmet and then decorate from there. Or do you have a chocolate sugar cookie recipe? Thanks!!

Hi Marian,
This recipe looks perfect for what I need to do and I really want to to make it. Would you by any chance have this converted into metrics because im afraid to convert it and mess it up. Thanks

It’s so interesting, baking is like a science. If you look two comments above yours, you’ll see someone made the recipe but they said theirs was super wet.

It’s difficult for me to say without having been with you to see your ingredients and measurements etc., but it’s important to have all the measurements etc. right. Not to despair though… A few things you can do… Keep mixing and see if it just takes more time for the dough to come together and if that doesn’t work add a little bit of water or milk until the dough forms into a ball.
xo

My all time favorite recipe … I have made it a million times and get compliments each and every time. I make cookies for all my friends and family now and come straight to your blog for every recipe and idea! Thanks for all the help!! Please continue to share! Love!!

It’s interesting that some people say the dough is too sticky, some people say it’s too dry, and many say it’s just right. It’s hard to say without being there and seeing the ingredients, measurements etc., what the differences are, but baking is very precise and almost like a science. Perhaps even how soft the butter is makes a difference in how well the dough comes together. Please do try again, I’ve done a lot of experimenting, and this recipe is one of my cut-out cookie favorites. And yes, absolutely, try less flour… Maybe add 3/4 of it and then slowly add the rest until you’re happy with the texture. The dough should be soft but not sticky. I hope that helps and all the best to you!

Hi, I’ve been seeing these delectable cookies on my pinterest page for quite sometime and I think I’ve fallen in love with these.Unfortunately I have an egg allergy. Is there any way to make these without egg/ I’m from India and I haven’t found any of those egg replacer things you get in the market. Please, pretty please lemme know how I can make cut out cookies without egg or replacer (maybe use aquafaba?)Thanks a ton!!

I followed the recipe and all of the notes exactly (including no baking powder), but when I just pulled my first batch of cookies out of the oven they spread more than any recipe I’ve ever tried! They are not usable. I did refrigerate cut cookie dough over night. Could this be the reason? Any advice is appreciated, I think I will need to scrap all of my cookies.

Hi Marian
I have made one batch using your recipe. Im in Australia and wondering how should i go about the conversion? should I just use the cups i have or do you suggest I use a weight by grams? when i look up conversions from US to AU there are so many variations.Would the difference in the cup size from US to AU matter that mush to your recipe? looking forward to your reply : )

[…] Sweetopia to be most helpful, plus she has adorable pictures of her creations! Sugar cookie recipe: http://sweetopia.net/2009/12/sugar-cookie-recipe/ * I halve the recipe and get about 32-36 cookies from the batch * I used baking powder, but the […]

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